


I Will Never Forget You

by goldenlarry28



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bottom Harry, Closeted Character, Deaf Character, Deaf Harry, Disability, Disabled Character, Football | Soccer, Football | Soccer Captain Louis Tomlinson, Football | Soccer Player Louis Tomlinson, Friends to Lovers, High School, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Harry, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Popular Louis, Top Louis Tomlinson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:41:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28800738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenlarry28/pseuds/goldenlarry28
Summary: The second they saw each other, Louis and Harry were inseparable. Of course, they happened to be on vacation, so their time together only lasted half a day. Even then, something special had sparked between them.Ten years later, Harry moves to Louis' hometown, and attends his school. Will they rediscover the connection they once had, let alone recognize each other? Or will they have forgotten each other completely?Or the one where Louis (the popular, well-liked, jokester, captain of the soccer team), and Harry (the misunderstood, deaf boy trying to make a change in his life), met on vacation as little boys. Ten years later they suddenly end up in the same high school, leading to drama, misunderstandings, understandings, discovery, rediscovery, friendship, and love.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	1. Prologue

Six year old Louis was having a great time playing in the calm creek. It was a warm, sunny, and overall perfect afternoon to be on vacation with his family. They were in a small town named Ashland, currently having fun at the town’s one and only park. 

The park had a creek running through it, with a paved bottom on a certain shallow stretch, making it a great place to wade around and play, and maybe even swim, for small enough children. That’s where Louis was standing, shoving the water around and pretending to be a great big shark in the vast ocean. 

In the little game he was playing with himself, he was attacking an innocent little fish. To make that come to life, he banged on the surface of the water, causing big splashes to form. His splashes got bigger and bigger, until the shark was about to do his final number on the fish. 

Just as Louis was pretending to bite the fish, at the climax of his water slapping, he heard a squeal a few feet away. He paused his attack to see who could’ve possibly made that sound. 

Looking up, his wandering eyes were met with the prettiest eyes he believed that he’d ever seen. They were a beautiful, electric, bright green. Louis stared for what felt like an eternity, (which, in reality, was only a few seconds) before finally tearing his eyes from the sight to really see who made the noise. What he saw was a boy about his age. They were the same height, but the other boy was a little thinner. Besides the boy's eyes, Louis noticed the slightly wavy, damp, light brown hair on his head, his perfect pink lips, his shirtless little tummy, and his blue patterned swim trunks. 

The last thing that jumped out to Louis was what seemed to be a thick orange headband around the boy’s head. He didn’t think he’d seen something quite like that before, and was curious. Who would wear a headband swimming?

“Oops?” Louis said, almost like he was asking a question. It just slipped from his mouth; he was pretty much speechless. 

The boy smiled, revealing his cute dimples which Louis just wanted to poke. “Hi,” he stated.

“I’m so sorry. What’s your name? Mine’s Louis,” Louis was back to his normal self, remembering what his mother had told him to do if he ever met someone. He knew it was best to be polite. He also remembered to stick his hand out, waiting for a handshake. 

“Um, m’name’s Harry,” the boy, who Louis now knew was named Harry, replied, reaching out to shake.

“Nice to meet ya, Harry.”

“Uh, yes, you too.”

“Can you play with me, Harry?” Louis asked the other. He wanted to get to know more about him.

“Erm, yes, sure,” Harry’s face broke a small smile.

“Wanna explore under that bridge?” There was a small footbridge crossing the river a small walk upstream that Louis had been curious to explore. He thought it’d be a fun thing to do with Harry. 

“S’fine,” Harry approved. 

“Alright, let’s go!” Louis took Harry’s arm, wading up to the bridge. 

It took a minute to get under the bridge, as it was hard to navigate around the rocks that started to take over the bottom of the creek. 

They played for a while, until around an hour later, Louis saw an unfamiliar woman, standing next to his own mom, near the steps down to the creek, trying to get the attention of Harry. Louis assumed it was Harry’s mother, and was surprised Harry hadn’t already heard her. He poked Harry’s shoulder and the other turned around. Louis pointed him to the woman.

“Harry, we’ve got to go, it’s almost time for our dinner reservation!” the woman was yelling, waving him over. Harry nodded.

“Come too,” Harry said to Louis waving him over shyly. 

“Who’s this new friend you’ve made, Harry?” the woman asked, looking between him and Louis once the boys had come out of the water.

“S’Louis, he’s really nice,” Harry told her somewhat timidly. 

“Well, Louis, this is your mom right?” she gestured toward the other woman who was in fact, Louis’ mom.

“Yes ma’am,” Louis said, trying to keep his manners good like his mother always wanted. 

“Great. What a nice little boy you are!” she praised him. “I just met her and talked to her a little bit, and maybe since you guys seem to be getting along so well you would like to join in with your mother, father, and baby sister on our dinner reservation tonight?”

When Louis was contemplating on what to say to the woman, his own mother joined in. “Louis, instead of eating at the burger place like our original plan, we could eat some lovely noodles or something like that. I think it’s a great idea!”

“Oh sure,” Louis replied, knowing that he loved some good food. His yummy burger could wait. He’d rather eat with his new friend. 

“Alright, I’ll see if they can expand our reservation,” Harry’s mom said, getting on the phone.

“Hey Louis, let’s go grab my bag, and change back into normal clothes and dry off a little,” his mom led him over a little down the path where her bag was sitting on the side. “Let’s keep your shorts on, they’ll dry fast, and put a shirt on.”

His mom dried him off with a towel, and then he got his light blue top on to go with his green shorts. His mom handed him his socks, and he put his little Nikes on too.  
Just as he was about to go back to Harry, his mom said, “Wait! I have to talk to you for a second, Louis.” 

“Ok,” Louis turned around to face her. 

She started talking slightly quietly, “Harry is a little bit different, Lou. Do you know why he was wearing that headband?” Louis shook his head. “Well, he has to wear hearing aids to help him hear, because without them he wouldn’t really be able to hear anything. And if you were wondering, he wears that headband in water to keep his ears from getting wet, because if they did his hearing aids wouldn’t work. This means, Lou, that even though normal people would be able to hear you perfectly fine, Harry might not, even with the hearing aids. So I want you to be very gentle with him and understand if he doesn’t hear you the first time. Also, don’t make it a big deal and go running up to him and ask. That wouldn’t be very kind, and I don’t think he would like that very much.”

Louis was a little shocked with all this information. He didn’t think that Harry seemed different at all. “Ok,” he told his mom. 

“Let’s go back over there now and see what the deal is with our dinner.”

Louis turned around and started to walk back. He decided that the ‘hearing aids’, or whatever they were, wouldn’t deter him from being friends with the boy.

Harry’s mother had just gotten off the phone, and was currently taking off Harry’s headband. This revealed these orange things on his ears, that looked like they were plugging his ear and wrapping around the backside of it too. Louis knew these were the hearing aids his mom had told him about. 

“Alright Jay, I called and the restaurant said that they can do our reservation for more people, but at 6:00 instead of 5:30. We can let the boys play on the playground here until it’s time to leave for that?” Harry’s mom asked Louis’.

“That’s a great plan, Louis are you good with that?” Jay asked him. Louis nodded a second later. 

“C’mon Harry, let's go play!’ Louis took his hand and led him down the short path that led to the playground, the moms following. 

The two boys played for another half hour, swinging on the swings, playing tag, sliding down the slides, doing the monkey bars, and climbing around on the structures. 

When their moms called them over, they ran over and hugged their respective one. Louis then realized that he was suddenly very hungry. An older girl was with Harry’s mother, and Louis found out it was his nine year old sister, Gemma. She was nice, but Louis knew that a part of her thought she was too cool for the younger boys. 

The restaurant was across the street from the park, making for a very short walk. Now joined by Louis’ dad and baby sister who went for a walk in the park, the two families made their way there. 

When they got their table, Harry and Louis insisted that they sit next to each other. 

“What’re you gonna get?” Louis asked, leaning closer to Harry.

“Mm, somethin’ wit’ noodles.”

“Noodles sound good. Mama, we both want noodles,” Louis proudly stated, thinking he was a good boy for figuring out what to order.

“Well alright, Louis,” his mom smiled. “Would noodles with some chicken and yummy sauce mixed in be okay?” 

“Yes, mommy!” that sounded so good to Louis he started jumping up and down in his seat with excitement and hunger. 

“Harry, same for you?” his mother asked.

“Erm, yes. S-sounds real good.”

Louis was only six, but he was a smart little boy. He couldn’t tear his eyes off of Harry, and observed him closely when he talked. He’d noticed that the other didn’t like to talk a lot and occasionally had trouble pronouncing or getting his words out. Louis linked that to his hearing. Louis figured that he probably had a little bit of trouble speaking when he couldn’t really hear properly even with hearing aids. 

Once the waiter had taken their orders, Louis and Harry started filling in the margins of the kid menus they were given with the crayons from a little cup set in the middle of the table. 

The boys were having great fun with each other, laughing and smiling, while Gemma watched on in a somewhat jealous and annoyed manner. 

Their mothers smiled at each other sadly, knowing that since both families were on vacation, they would likely never see each other again. They’d had a long conversation once they saw their boys so wonderfully playing together, so they were acquainted and quite liked each other. 

After a while, the food arrived and everyone chowed down happily. Harry and Louis both finished very fast, and Louis felt bored. He decided to teach Harry a hand game he had learned in Kindergarten. Harry picked it up very fast, which was a surprise to Louis. It’d taken him a few days of constant practce to fully understand what every little hand movement was.

“Harry, you’re so good at this!” Louis was frustrated that he couldn’t win easily like he normally did when he was playing against someone new to the game. 

“I dunno maybe s’cuz I can talk w’my hands too,” Harry quietly said, just loud enough so Louis could hear.

“You can talk with your hands?!” Louis was amazed. “How?”

“S’called sign language, cause I can’t really hear anymore n’I don’t always wear these,” Harry pointed to his ears. “I hate talkin’, an without ‘em I can’t hear, so it’s how I talk most f’the time. Lot’s f’people do it when they can’t hear.”

“Wow!” Louis was truly amazed, he’d never heard of something like that before.

The boys continued to play, both enjoying each other's company deeply while it lasted. At last, their parents had paid and it was time to part ways for the evening. Louis knew that his family would be driving home the next day, and there would be no time to see each other again on the trip. They also lived in completely different states, making it hard to get together again. 

The families gathered their stuff and walked outside of the restaurant, pausing to say goodbye. 

“Well, it was great meeting you all today and I’m sure if we lived closer together we would be visiting each other again soon!” Louis’ mom said.

“Yes, I’m glad our children made some wonderful new friends,” Harry’s mom smiled down at the two boys. 

Johanna looked at her watch, “Oh no, we’ve got to get going quickly, we need to start packing for tomorrow!”

“But mama, I don’t wanna leave Harry!” Louis said. 

“C’mon Louis, we really have to go,” his mom started walking away, his dad with his baby sister in his arms following. 

“Bye Louis,” Harry said, the tone of his voice sad.

“Goodbye, Harry,” Louis replied.

Louis wanted his last moment with Harry to be something special, so when he saw that Harry’s mother and sister weren’t watching, he did something he’d previously thought would be too gross to even think about doing. Just like he’d seen his mother and father do, he grabbed Harry’s hips, leaned in, and gave him a perfect kiss on the lips. 

He knew that his emotions had overtaken him, but he didn’t regret it. It was a perfect second while it lasted. Louis knew that perfect moments don’t last forever, for it was over all too soon. He turned away and ran to catch up with his mother. Louis didn’t even look back for fear that Harry’s reaction would be bad. That was the last they saw of each other, for many, many years.


	2. 1 // Lou

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, now that I’m getting down to the real story, I’m going to clear a few things up first.  
> -Yes, there will be some cursing/foul language, although not to a very large extent  
> -Currently, don’t plan on any smut (at least within a large part of the story, there may be some snuck in towards the end), and if there is any, it won’t be graphic/detailed because I’ve never written smut before and I’m not comfortable just going right ahead with it :)  
> -This is complete fiction; it is my own work and none of the actions, etc. are meant to imply anything about these people IRL, I’m simply using their names and appearances to build a story off of, and I certainly do not mean any disrespect to Harry, Louis, or any of the others  
> -I’m American, so yes, I will be using American English and the story will take place in the West Coast US area  
> -There will be some extra characters I add in, basically OCs, who have no significant connection to any real life person  
> -Harry’s disability in the story is not meant to be any disrespect to Harry in real life; it was simply an idea I came up with, that I wanted to make a story out of, so here we are!  
> -I do not know anyone (closely, I do know people with similar conditions to Harry however not the same, and this isn’t based off of them) who has the exact same condition as Harry. If I get anything wrong, please please please correct me. You’ll learn a lot more about Harry not in this chapter, but in upcoming ones.

Sixteen year old Louis walked down the sidewalk on his way to school for the first time after winter break. It was a bitter, cold January morning, so Louis wore a black puffy coat with his black jeans and black vans. He carried his backpack on one shoulder. He saw no point in wearing it on both. 

Once he got to Northridge High School, which he was in his junior year at, he stopped to wait for his friends by the flagpole to the right of the main doors. He did it almost every day, so it was routine. He was the first of his friends there, and even though most students were walking right in the doors, Louis stayed put. He wasn’t worried if he was a few minutes late. The teachers wouldn’t mind. 

Louis was one of the “popular” kids, as you could say. Although he hated that term, that’s how most people saw him. His personality was fitting for his popularity, and the fact that he was the captain of the varsity soccer team certainly contributed also. He was well respected and highly obeyed by everyone, although he wasn’t keen on using his power. 

Even the teachers wouldn’t want to get him in trouble, although he didn’t like to think of it that way. He’d rather wait for at least some of his good friends to arrive before walking in. 

Sometimes Louis did like to use his power, although not in a seemingly large way. In this case, he knew that the teachers wouldn’t care too much if he was slightly late. For one, he had an easy going first period teacher, who couldn’t give a fuck about what Louis did. Second, being only sixteen, he was the captain of the varsity soccer team for Northridge. This was a great honor, and Louis was aware. He’d worked hard to improve for many years, and wanted to pursue soccer in college and beyond. 

Because of that, the teachers didn’t usually get Louis or any of the good soccer players, for that matter, in trouble. It was just one of those unspoken rules, and Louis didn’t like it, even though it could be nice to have more freedom at times.

Louis spent a few more minutes of just watching his classmates walk through the doors, before his two best friends, Niall and Liam, arrived together. 

“How’s it goin’ Louis?” Niall was quite the character, constantly talking, and at a loud volume too. 

“Oh, you know, just waiting for my tardy friends,” Louis sassed. They weren’t technically tardy, but who would care? 

“Pfff, we aren’t late, dude, you know that,” Liam reasoned.

“Whatever. Let’s go,” they walked in the doors. People made way for them as they made their way down the halls. It happened every day, and although Louis wasn’t into all the attention all the time, it had always been like this for him and his friends, so he didn’t give it second thought anymore.

Being close friends and walking through the halls with Niall was… quite the experience. He was friends with every single person they passed, always greeting everyone as he walked by, and somehow managing remembering their names. All in all, everyone loved Niall, and Niall loved everyone. 

Niall could talk for years straight, and he always had a story to tell. Because of that, it seemed like every day, Louis and Liam were being introduced to some random kid that Niall had befriended. Niall was a nice guy, but nobody but Louis and Liam could hang out with him for an extended amount of time. 

Louis and Niall had been best friends since they met at the start of middle school, Niall joining Liam and Louis, who had been inseparable for much longer than that, and becoming part of the group. The three were great friends, and known for it.

Eventually, because they had different first periods, the three parted ways. Just as the bell rang, Louis stepped into his class and took a seat in the back, like did every day.  
His math teacher, Mrs. Harrison walked in a few seconds later, closing the door behind her.

“Tomlinson, I see you made it here before me today, what an accomplishment!” she said loudly to the whole class, a few people snickering and the rest just waiting for Louis’ all too predictable comeback.

“Wow, look at me, I’m such a perfect student! So ready to learn and understand everything the first time!” came his mocking reply. The class, on cue, erupted with laughter. It was instinct for Louis to come up with the most random things to joke about. Sometimes his jokes weren’t even funny, but he said them anyway, and his peers always thought he was funny. Except for those few who really didn’t care about their social life. Louis didn’t blame them.

Louis wasn’t necessarily a bad student, but he certainly wasn’t any better than average. Sports were his high point, and he spent much more time on them. He knew that some teachers secretly hated him, just because of how much of a stereotypical popular kid he seemed to be. Luckily, Mrs. Harrison had a good personality and liked to joke around with all her students, even the ones who did the bare minimum, which was what Louis liked in a teacher. 

“Anyway, Louis, now that we got your daily dose of sass, I think we can get to business. We have a new student today, moved here over break. I think he should arrive in a few minutes. We’ll meet him then, for now I’m going to go over the new material for today.”

Louis zoned out for a second, wondering what this new kid would be like. Most of the time, new kids would just blend in right away. They were introduced as new, and then all of a sudden they’d settle down and find their friends (or not), and Louis wouldn’t really hear any more about them. He wanted to know what this guy would be like.

After continuing to go over the “new material” for a few more minutes, the door opened, revealing Niall, which was a surprise.

“Hey, Ni, I didn’t know you were the new student!” Louis pretended to be serious.

“Ha, very, very funny, Tommo,” Niall shot back. Pretending to get to business, smoothing out his shirt, he said, “Hello friends, this is Mr. New Student, Harry!” he pretended to make a grand entrance, motioning with his arms for Harry, who stepped into the doorway next to him, waving and cracking a small smile. “I had to give Harry a tour, but that’s done, so now I’m dropping him off at his class!”

“Why thank you, Niall. Your job is done, see you in a few hours for your class,” Mrs. Harrison talked to him in a partially joking manner. Niall saluted her with a smile on his face, marching away out of sight.

All attention turned to Harry, who Louis hadn’t gotten his first good look at. To say the least, Louis was surprised. The boy was actually beautiful, and Louis knew that there would soon be girls all over him. 

Louis couldn’t see the details of his face from where he was, but the boy had slightly long hair in curly locks that went just past his ears, dark brown in color. There was a bandana holding some of the locks back. He was tall, and had a nice body, which was a compliment coming from Louis. 

Lastly, when the boy smiled, he had dimples. Damn dimples! Louis found himself staring. “Hi,” Harry said to the class, seemingly unphased by the attention. Louis knew right away that this kid was meant for the spotlight.

“Hello Harry! Nice to meet you. I’m Mrs. Harrison, your first period Algebra II teacher, at least for now. How about you tell us a little bit about yourself?” she waved Harry to the front of the classroom. 

As he walked forward, he carried himself with such suavity that it just further proved Louis’ point. 

“Well, I’m Harry Styles, I’m from California and I’m a junior. I moved here a few weeks ago, and I’m a soccer player. I don’t know if there’s much more, I’m not that interesting,” Harry smiled one of his smiles again. Louis found himself in a trance, not able to tear his eyes away from him.

“I see Harry Styles,” Mrs. Harrison emphasized his last name, with a slight smirk on her face. “Maybe you should talk to Louis, here. He’s the captain of the soccer team, and I reckon if you want to be friends with a slacker Louis is the best one,” Mrs. Harrison pointed to Louis, continuing her teasing ways.

Louis snapped out of his daze. “Oh, yes. I’m, uh, such a slacker, yeah haha,” Louis laughed. The other students chuckled a bit. 

“I see, I’ll talk to this Louis,” Harry put emphasis on Louis’ name, winking at Louis with another cheeky smile, which Louis just could not decode. 

“Okay, Harry, I’m going to continue. We’ve just started talking, I’m sure you’ll catch on,” Mrs. Harrison droned on about the stupid math that Louis didn’t even want to try to understand for the whole rest of the hour. 

Of course, instead of listening, Louis just kept thinking about Harry. He didn’t understand how someone could walk into school as a new kid with such great confidence. It was unfathomable to him. 

Also, Louis had a feeling that Niall and Harry would get along quite well. In fact, he found himself almost hoping that somehow Harry would become friends with Niall so that he could hang out with him too. He seemed cool, and Louis thought he’d be a good addition to their group.

There were more overlying thoughts and feelings about Harry in which, for the most part, Louis chose to ignore. There was one that he just couldn’t, however. 

Louis thought Harry seemed very familiar. He felt like he’d seen those eyes and that smile on a face together before. He couldn’t quite place where, and it was bugging him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy! Thanks for the love on the prologue!!  
> What’s your favorite 1D song at the moment? Currently, I’m really enjoying Night Changes, Stockholm Syndrome, and Home. And Infinity and Fireproof. And I should stop now cause I could basically go off and list every single one.


End file.
